The system isn’t the problem. The gaps around it are.

Most firms don’t replace their case management system because the core software fails them. They replace it, or grow frustrated with it, because everything around it doesn’t talk to each other. AML checks live in one tool, e-signature in another, telephony somewhere else, and MI reporting gets pieced together in spreadsheets nobody trusts.

Whether you’re running Proclaim, Osprey, LEAP, Clio, or something built in-house, the pattern is the same. The CMS is only as good as what it connects to.

What “integration” actually needs to cover

When firms ask us about integrations, they’re usually thinking about one or two tools. In practice, a properly connected CMS touches most of the day-to-day workflow. This is the same list we work through with every firm we support, whatever CMS they’re on:

  • Client onboarding and instruction portals, so intake data flows straight into the CMS instead of being rekeyed. This is also where onboarding platforms like Minerva tend to sit, feeding matters in automatically rather than through manual entry.
  • AML and KYC checks, run at the right stage of a matter instead of as a separate manual step, through providers such as Thirdfort or SmartSearch
  • ID verification, tied to the matter record from the point of instruction
  • E-signature, for engagement letters and case documents, through tools like DocuSign, tracked against the file
  • OCR, so scanned or paper documents become searchable, structured data instead of dead weight in a file
  • SMS notifications, logged back to the matter without manual updates, often through providers like Twilio
  • Secure payments, reconciled against the matter rather than tracked separately
  • Automated document production and print, through partners such as Post Partner, generating and printing case documents without manual assembly
  • Document management systems, so files aren’t duplicated across two places
  • Accounting and billing tools, such as Xero or Sage, so time recording and invoicing aren’t a separate exercise
  • CRMs, keeping client and prospect data consistent across marketing and case teams
  • Business Intelligence and reporting, most commonly Power BI, pulling live data out of the CMS instead of static exports

Any one of these done well saves time. Done together, they remove most of the manual admin that eats into fee earner hours.

Why “our CMS doesn’t support that” usually isn’t true

We hear this a lot, and it’s rarely accurate. Most modern case management systems, Proclaim included, expose APIs or data layers that make integration possible. What’s usually missing isn’t capability, it’s a partner who understands both the legal workflow and the technical side well enough to build the connection properly.

This matters because a bad integration is often worse than none. A portal that pushes incomplete data into a matter, or a reporting tool that pulls from the wrong fields, creates more cleanup work than it saves. The system being technically “connected” isn’t the same as it being useful.

What good integration looks like in practice

A few signs a firm’s integrations are actually working:

  1. Fee earners aren’t rekeying data. If the same client detail gets typed into three systems, the integration isn’t finished.
  2. Reporting reflects reality, not last month. Dashboards pull live from the CMS, not from someone’s manual export routine.
  3. Compliance checks happen at the right point automatically, not because someone remembered to run them.
  4. New tools plug in without a rebuild. Adding a new portal or communication channel shouldn’t mean starting over.

Questions worth asking before you commit to any integration project

  • Does this integration work with our specific CMS version, or a generic build that needs heavy customisation?
  • Who maintains the connection when the CMS gets updated?
  • Can we see live reporting from this, or only static exports?
  • What happens to historic data if we change tools later?
  • Is compliance (AML, data handling) built into the workflow, or bolted on afterwards?

The bigger picture

Integration work isn’t really about the tools. It’s about how much of a fee earner’s day goes to admin instead of casework, and how confident leadership can be in the numbers behind the firm’s decisions. That holds true whatever CMS sits at the centre.

If you’re weighing up whether your current setup is pulling its weight, the honest answer usually shows up in one place: how much manual rekeying is still happening a year after go-live. If the answer is “still quite a bit,” it’s worth a proper conversation.